Is your puppy possessive with toys or food?
Practice this:
Trade *up* for some GREAT treat, toy or a chunk of cheese or meat. Eventually she will know that when you take something away she will get something better…she will happily give you her bone for a chunk of tasty meat!
Start with things that she is not as possessive about and work up to food, bones or whatever she is possessive about.
Practice, practice, practice…short lessons, many times per day.

This is an EXCELLENT video for training your dog or puppy the ‘Drop’ command.

Have FUN with your training sessions! The more you *play* with your dog in ways that incorporate training for what you want…the more your dog will DO what you want! Enjoy!

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As always…if you have a new puppy…or if you know someone who does…or if you want to learn more about puppies…check out my new website! Go to: www.trainyournewpuppy.com

The Westminster Dog Show in Madison Square Garden is in it’s second day today.
Congrats to all the participants and to the winners for sure!
This is one of the most prestigious dog shows in the world and it has been going on now for 139 years. It is fun to watch all the different breeds of dogs and interesting to find out who will be considered the best of the best in the AKC.
If you are thinking about getting a dog this show is a great opportunity for you to learn a bit more about the dog breeds you might be interested in. It is a benched show, that means the dogs stay there and you can see them and talk with the breeders. The AKC website also has an area where you can find out more about each breed.

With the temps being well below zero in many areas we need to bring our beloved pets in out of the weather. If your pup has short hair you may want to provide him with a jacket or coat when he goes out to do his business. If you get cold when you are out for a length of time your pet will most likely get cold also!
Here are examples of options to help keep your pup warm.

Nessa in her cold weather jacket.

Odin in his winter coat.

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As always…if you have a new puppy…or if you know someone who does…or if you want to learn more about puppies…check out my new website! Go to: www.trainyournewpuppy.com

The BIG UKC Premier Show has come and gone. It sounds like it was a whirlwind of a weekend with lots of fun and plenty of good activities.
Congratulations to all who did well in their shows, classes and events! I really wish I could have been there to cheer you on in person…maybe next year will be the year.
Kudos to all the UKC staff who arranged the event and made it happen…AND, not to forget, a BIG THANK YOU goes out to all the volunteers who worked tirelessly to help with the many aspects of this large dog show/activity event.

Clicking on the picture above should take you right to the UKC Premier page so you can check out all the info from the weekend. Check out all the fun events like the weight pull, agility, dock diving and racing that you can view or take part in! There are more events and classes being added all the time and UKC makes it FUN to do stuff with your dog. Check it out…maybe you’ll find something you can’t resist to do with your dog!

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As always…if you have a new puppy…or if you know someone who does…or if you want to learn more about puppies…check out my new website! Go to: www.trainyournewpuppy.com

Hello! We have been feeding ‘raw’ to the dogs for over a month now and we are very pleased with the results we are getting. The dogs LOVE their food, they are noticeably less fidgety and irritable and they settle down faster in the evenings than they have in the past. I really believe it has to do with the food they are now consuming…or rather, the food they are not consuming, (dry kibble.)

Since the last post I have added in some pork , some beef liver and raw eggs into their diet. I also give them a dollop of pumpkin over the evening meal to help regulate the digestion. They were getting some yogurt for a bit but I think Nessa is sensitive to dairy products so I have stopped all dairy at this time. The morning staple is still chicken necks, backs and/or thighs and the evening meal varies from eggs to liver to ground meat or chicken.

On another note…the dogs have done their job quite well this spring. They have destroyed several mouse nests, caught a rat and 2 squirrels that were invading the woodshed area and even managed to dig up a grass snake yesterday…(which we promptly put back into its hole and fenced the area off.) This year should be a good year for gardening with way less damage from the varmints who tend to eat our beans and beets right out of the garden. I am very please with the work that our dogs do around the property keeping marauders away.

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As always…if you have a new puppy…or if you know someone who does…or if you want to learn more about puppies…check out my new website! Go to: www.trainyournewpuppy.com

Well, I have taken the leap for my dogs and I’ve started feeding them “raw”. This is something that I have thought about and reading about for some time. I’ve checked out a LOT of websites, Facebook pages and opinions about feeding raw and decided it is at the very least worth a try. Species specific food information is being found more and more in my life. With all the recalls of pet foods and the extra “ingredients” that are being added by the manufacturers, either by choice or not, I’ve decided to give raw food a try…at least for a few months to see what happens.

We have started out with chicken. Chicken is a staple of a lot of raw feeders because it is a relatively cheap source of good protein and it is easily consumed and used by the dogs. There are a few dogs who will have allergies to chicken but it seems to be a very small number. When hunting for suppliers you may want to check out wholesale supply places. That is where I found my supplier of chicken backs and necks. I buy them in boxes of 40 lbs. of fresh chicken and then I pack them in smaller bags for freezing. Sometimes chicken quarters or legs go on sale at the grocery stores and I will by them there also. I also keep an eye out for sales on liver & heart because the dogs need some of the richer foods for their systems to work properly. You really don’t have to worry too much about getting everything your dog needs into every meal though. Over the week or the month is fine.

On a few sites where I researched they recommend keeping “carcass” in your mind when feeding. In the wild state and for full nutritional needs you will want to mimic a whole bird, squirrel or rabbit in the percentages of nutrients. This means about 70 – 80% meat, 10 – 15% bone and 10 – 15% organs. And…dogs need fat…so don’t be afraid to feed out the skin and fat of the chickens, etc. You have to be observant though in your feeding practices. If your dog is gaining weight on the raw diet you will want to cut back on some of the richer foods like the meaty bones and fattier cuts of meat.

I have only been feeding this way for a few weeks so far. It is not as convenient as pouring kibble out of a bag but the dogs are REALLY liking it! They love their feeding times now and they are looking sleek and healthy so far. I will be weighing them on a regular basis to keep a close eye on them for the next few months. That way we’ll be able to see what happens and what I may need to adjust as we go along. I also feed ground meat with blanched or processed veggies to my dogs in the evening along with a dab of pumpkin and a dollop of plain yoghurt.

My plan, if I keep liking this way of feeding, is to buy a grinder so I can make up my own dog food grind when I find things on sale. I think that will be one key to keeping the prices down to a level that is comparable to the mid to high-end kibble prices. For two dogs this is going to be a pretty easy switch over for the trial period…but I’m already liking the way the dogs are responding to the food. It just seems so natural for them when they eat their food now. Instead of eating little kibble bits out of a bowl they are chewing real meat and bones just like they do when they catch a mouse or squirrel out in the field. It just looks and feels ‘right’ to me.

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As always…if you have a new puppy…or if you know someone who does…or if you want to learn more about puppies…check out my new website! Go to: www.trainyournewpuppy.com

Westminster Kennel Dog Show is over and they have a new winner for this year!

GCH Afterall Painting The Sky ~ a.k.a. “Sky,” a Wire Fox Terrier.

I LOVE to watch the show and it was particularly fun to see a terrier win again. There are all different types of dogs represented in the Westminster Show but I have a special place in my heart for the terriers and especially one of the new breeds in AKC, the Rat Terrier. The Rat Terrier breed was very well represented this year in the show boasting 20 entries and a great group of dogs they were!

What is your favorite breed of dog represented in the Westminster Kennel Show? Do you know how often your fav has won in the 138 years they have had it?

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As always…if you have a new puppy…or if you know someone who does…or if you want to learn more about puppies…check out my new website! Go to: www.trainyournewpuppy.com

NOT the Westminster…but still proud of my Rat Terrier girl Nessa for her showing in the United German Shepherd Dog Alliance Show in 2010.

This week is THE dog show week for some of the best of the best in the world of showing canines. The Westminster Kennel Club 138th Annual Dog Show in New York is going on this week and has actually already started with a new venue in the form of Agility. The first Agility event was run on Saturday and was the opening event for this year’s Westminster Show.

Kelso, a 7-year-old Border Collie, won the first Masters Agility Championship at Westminster Saturday night before a full house at Pier 94 in New York City. Kelso is owned and handled by Delaney Ratner of Cape Elizabeth, ME.

The show will continue on Monday and Tuesday with Benching, Breed Judging, Junior Showmanship, Group Judging and Best in Show. Tuesday evening will be the Finals and Best in Show. The Monday and Tuesday shows are being offered live from 8:00 to 11:00 on CNBC and USA channels respectively. You can also live stream a lot of the show rings and shows off the official website. Check out more info on The Westminster Kennel Club website here:

I will be rooting for ALL the Rat Terriers this week! GO RATTIES!!!!!
This is the debut of the RAT TERRIER in the Westminster Show this week along with two other first time breeds; the Portuguese Podengo Pequeno, and Chinook.

In our house we will be watching the Westminstershows in-between the Sochi Winter Olympics which happen to be going on this week also. So much to see…so little time!

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As always…if you have a new puppy…or if you know someone who does…or if you want to learn more about puppies…check out my new website! Go to: www.trainyournewpuppy.com

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